Early reading skill is usually developed using vocalization techniques whereby the student first learns to "sound out" words. Even after silent reading skills are developed, readers usually continue to mentally sound out each word. This process is called subvocalization. Time required to subvocalize each word generally restricts the mastery of higher reading speed and comprehension.
In addition to subvocalization, reading also involves two other processes, translation and placement. Translation involves part-of-speech classification, building a mental image of the meaning of the word, and subliminally bringing to mind related words and images. Placement involves determining the context of the word in the sentence or text being read. Subvocalization is the only one of the three processes not required when reading, although translation and placement may be expanded beyond words to groups of words and phrases.
Eye movement during sight reading is not linear, but interrupted movement as the eyes jump from one point on a line to another, stopping momentarily to gather information before jumping to the next point. Each time the eye stops is called "fixation". The human eye is capable of five to six fixations per second. At each fixation, the average reader can subvocalize, translate, and place about three words. Better subvocalizing readers who can read four words per fixation have a maximum reading speed under 1500 words per minute.
It has been found that readers who read above 1500 words per minute do not go through the entire reading process (i.e. they do not subvocalize, translate, and place each word). Instead, they are able to grasp the meaning of an entire phrase or part or all of a sentence without having to read each word. This process, called "chunking", allows the reader to comprehend manifold times as much information as a reader who must read each word. All speed reading methods concentrate on breaking the subvocalization habit and replacing it with chunking proficiency.
Multiple sensory inputs have been used to assist readers to break the subvocalization habit. It has been proved that reading speed can be controlled and increased by moving a finger across each line of text. The reader's eyes automatically follow the path traced by the finger, even though it may move across the page more rapidly than the reader's fixation and ordinary scan rate. When practiced, this motion can cause subvocalization to be discarded in favor of reading words in groups, phrases, and sentences. Reading studies have shown that using the body's natural hand-eye coordination can greatly improve reading skills. Most speed reading methods teach hand-eye coordination.
In limited application in the past, auditory sensation has been combined with sense and touch to teach new methods of increasing reading speed. A method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,322 is directed toward cyclic stereophonic sound patterns which pan from left to right and right to left to pace reader's finger and eye movement across lines of text. Stereophonic transmission is used wherein volume is cyclicly decreased in one speaker while being increased in the other to provide the sensation of movement from one side to the other to attempt to synchronize the rate of finger travel across lines on the page. In practice, however, this method has not produced significantly better results than methods which only use eye and finger movement.
The primary method of breaking the subvocalization habit comprises visual and tactile feedback of a finger (usually the index finger of the dominant hand) moving across a line of text too quickly for the mind to subvocalize each word. The eye automatically follows the path traced by the moving finger, even though it moves across the page much faster than the reader can read. Concentration upon the moving finger delivers text to the eye while tending to focus the mind on a single task. It is this rapid side-to-side motion that breaks the subvocalization habit and causes the reader to learn to read chunks of information.
The brain is divided into two hemispheres that perform very different functions, called hemispherical specialization. Although most thought is bilateral (i.e. it takes place on both sides of the brain), each hemisphere of the brain specializes to a degree in a specific type of thinking.
It is well known that the motor functions of the left side of the brain govern the right side of the body and vice versa. For example, when the left hand is raised, the electrochemical signal originated in the right side of the brain.
There is also hemispherical specialization in the manner in which the brain governs abstract thought. In most individuals, the right hemisphere is the center for art, music, and other forms of creative expression. Consistent with this, the right hemisphere is the center for processing the spoken word, rather than the written word. In these individuals, the left hemisphere governs logical, mathematical, businesslike thought, spacial relations, time, and rhythm. Although one must be careful not to overgeneralize, each hemisphere does have a greater influence over its own thought domain.
Messages can reach the brain subliminally without exciting conscious thought. The conscious mind evaluates, blocks, and otherwise disposes of received information it is unwilling to accept, while subliminal messages reach the brain unscreened and uninhibited. When these subliminal messages are used to motivate and reinforce learning activity, they are called subliminal affirmations. By bypassing the conscious mind, subliminal affirmations can have greater impact than conscious messages in a learning environment.
Recognizing potentially negative aspects of providing messages to the brain which are not consciously and inhibitively processed, it is recommended that all such subliminal affirmations be provided in written form to the learning reader for his or her perusal, before use. Another advantage of prereading subliminal affirmations in reinforced assimilation of the affirmations by the conscious and unconscious minds.